On Dec. 5, Rick Lusk, the 59-year-old director of the Aviation and Missile Command's G-4 (Internal Logistics), will celebrate his retirement after more than three decades of federal service without any plans to "cash in" on that experience in the private sector.
Instead, he is bringing to reality the retirement wish list that he and his wife Nancy have compiled over the years.
"Thirty-five years in federal service is a good place to end my career," Lusk said.
"I've reached a point in my life where I want to do some other things while I still have my health and I'm still relatively young. I have lots of interests I want to pursue."
Many of those interests have to do with going back to the roots of his civil engineering career. At first, Lusk will spend a lot of time helping his son - James Lusk, an aerospace engineer at the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center - renovate his new home in Huntsville. He will then move on to building a smaller retirement home, planning and establishing a mini-farm near his hometown of Scottsboro, and enjoying extensive traveling with his wife, who is a retired school teacher.
"I will work every day, but it will be on things that I love doing for my family and for myself," he said.
"I chose to be a civil engineer because I enjoy construction, building anything. I've enjoyed my civil engineering career, but it has been more overseeing and planning construction projects. I want to be closer to it. There's a lot of enjoyment, satisfaction and accomplishment in building with your hands."
Lusk's retirement ceremony and reception will be from 1:30 to 3:30 on Dec. 5 in the Sparkman Center's Executive Dining Room. The ceremony will bring to a close an engineering career that began in the nuclear power construction industry with the Tennessee Valley Authority, and continued in bridge construction for private industry in both Gulfport, Mississippi, and Houston before shifting to an Army engineering career at Redstone Arsenal.
Lusk worked with the Garrison's Directorate of Public Works from 1988 to 2000, during which he worked in construction contract administration, facilities design, energy management and utilities management, and served as chief of the Engineering Division. He was a member of the original staff that stood up the AMCOM G-4 office in 2000, serving as the chief of the Engineering and Property Division until he was selected as the deputy director of AMCOM G-4 in 2009. In February 2016, he became the AMCOM G-4 director.
"I was involved in a number of challenging and interested projects here at Redstone Arsenal," Lusk said.
"Early in my Army civilian career, I was on the structural team reviewing the civil engineering part of the contract proposals for the new Sparkman Center. I was just on the edge of it, but it was exciting because the Sparkman Center was the first of its kind not just for Redstone Arsenal but for the Army. It was a huge leap forward, a huge shift in how the Army thought particularly from a facilities standpoint."
Lusk's responsibilities grew with the challenges and demands of the AMCOM G-4. But hard work, long hours and making difficult decisions didn't keep him from enjoying the job.
"I can truly say it's been an honor and a privilege to be part of the G-4 and AMCOM for the past 17 years. I'm extremely proud to be part of an organization that provides aviation and missile readiness," Lusk said. "I'm hopeful that I've made a small contribution to AMCOM's success."
The AMCOM G-4's workforce of 90 employees are focused on a diverse mission with an optempo pace to meet the AMCOM and Army priority of readiness through its three major areas of responsibility: Environmental, Facilities and Property Accountability.
In the Environmental area, Lusk said AMCOM G-4 employees have a crucial role in ensuring AMCOM organizations comply with federal, state and local environmental laws as well as Army regulations and guidelines.
"The Army has the responsibility to ensure the mission does not have a negative impact on the environment," Lusk said.
"AMCOM has a huge environmental footprint that includes the industrial maintenance processes at its depots. We work with AMCOM organizations to ensure environmental compliance on a daily basis and also in the future."
AMCOM G-4 Environmental employees are working with the Army Research Lab, the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and Corpus Christi Army Depot (Texas) to reduce the use of heavy metal in the coatings for aviation weapon systems. Plans call for the elimination of 90 percent of heavy metals in coating processes by 2025.
In Facilities, employees provide building management support for the more than 1 million-square-foot Sparkman Complex where 4,600 employees are located. In addition, Facilities employees have established a modernization program across all of AMCOM that combines new construction and major renovations. One major project in that program is at Corpus Christi Army Depot.
"In 2002, when I first visited CCAD, I was surprised to find the Army's main remanufacturing mission for aircraft engines, transmissions and gear boxes was performed in a facility built in WWII and often subject to the damaging winds of hurricanes," Lusk recalled."
"But what surprised me most was there was no comprehensive strategy to upgrade the facility. It is now in the middle of a seven-phase program to modernize its more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing space. We didn't do all the work ourselves to make it happen, but we're the first to recognize the need and the genesis to make it happen."
In Property Accountability, employees have developed audit readiness procedures for general equipment that are being emulated throughout the Army Materiel Command.
"We have such a diverse and technical group of highly dedicated, experienced and hardworking employees in the G-4, including engineers, scientists, logisticians, environmentalists, building managers and real estate managers," Lusk said.
"Because of the diversity in our skills and the diversity in our responsibilities, I've had to rely heavily on the expertise of others to help me make the right decisions. I've enjoyed working with our employees and getting to know the employees. Many of them I've worked with for 10 years and some I've known since back in my Garrison days."
Lusk hopes he has brought a level of professional dedication to the G-4 director's position that has included a good work ethic, good sense of humor, fair and compassionate treatment of employees, and good decisions.
"Employees are individuals. Each is different and motivated by different things," Lusk said. "The vast majority of employees want to contribute. They want to feel that what they are doing is important. They want challenging work that allows them to learn, grow professionally and have a sense of accomplishment."
Like Lusk, the next AMCOM G-4 director won't have all the answers, but Lusk knows they will have an experienced group of subject matter experts who will be able to provide information to make the right decisions.
"This is more than a job, more than a career. When you are in federal service, it's about those you serve. For us, it's the warfighter. And, making a difference for the warfighter means having the courage and the dedication to make decisions, learn as you go and do what's best for the mission," Lusk said.
"I know going forward that I will miss the work and being part of the AMCOM team. It is a large part of who I am. But what I think I will miss most are the personal relationships with employees whom I've worked with on a daily basis."
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